Germany greenlights new network development plan

The Federal Network Agency of Germany has confirmed the electricity network development plan to 2045, reaffirming the need for expansion of the country’s transmission network.

The electricity network development plan 2023-2037/2045 includes the need for 4,800km of new lines and the reinforcement of 2,500km of existing connections, compared to the existing federal requirements plan.

“This network development plan shows for the first time which electricity network we need to complete the energy transition. We have carefully examined all proposed projects. For a climate-neutral electricity system, we need a significant amount of additional power lines by 2045,” explained Klaus Müller, president of the Federal Network Agency, in a release.

“We have only defined the start and end points of the lines in the network development plan. The exact route of the lines have not yet been determined, but will be determined in subsequent process steps.”

HVDC and offshore connections

With the development plan, the Federal Network Agency also confirmed five new high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission connections with a capacity of 2GW each :

• DC32 from Schleswig-Holstein to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania
• DC35 from Lower Saxony to Hesse
• DC40 from Lower Saxony to Saxony
• DC41 from Lower Saxony to Baden-Württemberg
• DC42 from Schleswig-Holstein to Baden-Württemberg

The plan also includes measures to connect offshore power generation to the onshore transmission network.

The Federal Network Agency considered 35 additional projects in the North and Baltic Seas to be necessary by 2045.

The lines connect up to 70GW of power from offshore wind farms to the mainland, a goal set out in the Windsee Law.

The network development plan contains the network connection points on the mainland where wind energy generated at sea can best be integrated into the transmission network.

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In response to the announcement from the Federal Network Agency, Kerstin Andreae, chairwoman of the Executive Board of BDEW, the German business organisation for the energy and water industry, said in a release:

“The confirmation of the network development plan is pleasing. It is now important to implement this quickly and move forward with the creation of the appropriate legal and regulatory framework. The approved network development plan makes clear the urgency of rapid network expansion.”

However, although Andreae lauds the plan’s confirmation, she added the need for a reliable and competitive investment framework, “especially at this time, when network operators are more dependent than ever on international investors … In addition to the investments in the transmission networks, there are additional investments worth billions in the conversion and expansion of the distribution networks to be able to reflect the new needs of network users.

“Network operators are rising to this challenge. But you also have to be able to rely on the Federal Network Agency offering a reliable and competitive framework for investments.”

In the network development plan, the four German TSOs – Amprion, TransnetBW, TenneT and 50Hertz – determine every two years which measures are necessary to optimise, strengthen and expand the high-voltage electricity network.

Germany’s Federal Network Agency examines and confirms these proposals with a federal requirements plan subsequently approved by legislature listing the required management projects.